Review by Felix on March 4, 2024.

A few months ago, I discovered Mopok’s “Carpathian Fullmoon Ritual” EP and it really blew me away. The fact that there are two more full-lengths to track down made things even more interesting. I did not spare any cost and trouble to get a copy of “In the Dungeons of Mind” and it is definitely a good album. Unfortunately, it can only partly compete with the sensational EP. Before I go into the details, let me mention the main deficiency of the full-length: it’s a classic example for an album which derails after a very promising start.

The opener shows nearly all the attributes that make the first two chapters of the EP so fascinating. A simple melody meets a raging surrounding. The almost linear flow of the song knows no mercy. Strictly and unwaveringly, it goes on restlessly. The appearance of an eerie piano builds once again a bridge to the mighty early works of Emperor. But already the second track suffers from a break which turns the actually great song into a kind of meditative sound collage, featuring only a mediocre tone sequence which is repeated again and again. Who else has to yawn besides me? Whatever the intention behind this idea was, it does not work. The artist seems to get back on track with “Tам, де ніч…“, because it features the same aesthetics as the opener. Its density and its malignancy are impressive and despite its length of eight minutes, the track is rather too short than too long.

Nevertheless, the high class of the EP is light years away. Track four wallows in ambient sounds. Okay, no keyboards, but guitar tones, anyway, there is no flow, almost no dynamic and a strange desire to drag everything out unnecessarily. Of course, one can fill some minutes of an album with this approach, but not broad parts (the final track runs in the same vein) and this is something that mastermind Severoth obviously forgot here. I gladly concede that the dark vibes of the gloomy production lends the album a pretty appropriate atmosphere and sometimes and sometimes you could be forgiven for thinking you were walking through the foggy, cold and dense forests of Ukraine at night (without having to fear the tanks of a criminal invaders).

“...Обертається на попіл” is among the better half of “In the Dungeons of Mind”. The restrained guitar at the beginning is surprising insofar as no croaking ravens join in, but it is nevertheless a great introduction to the majestic mid-tempo number. The song’s melody line, accompanied by galloping drums, is fantastic, the screams, howls and incantations are fine as always. Although this song also falls into a kind of shock paralysis for a short time, it is really convincing. And so I see this album with mixed feelings. It’s a good one and even some of the ambient parts are more or less expressive, but it is definitely not as sensational as the EP.

Rating: 7.7 out of 10